1. What's the evolutionary advantage of offering your place to an old woman on a bus?

Comment #83119 by jroller on October 29, 2007 at 2:19 am

I think there is a clear evolutionary advantage on offering your place to an old woman on a bus: by doing it you create a pattern of conduct in your society, promoting cooperation. This makes your life safer in the long run, and let you focus on "higher" issues, instead of just defending yourself in a competitive society.

The point in offerng your place to an old woman is in that it increases the total utility of your group: you lose less that she gains, and thus the final result is optimum. As a group, you got an evolutionary advantage at that moment. And humans are evolutionarily social dependent...